MAPIT

Aliens or Paralysis? - What's going on?

When discussing Sleep Paralysis and the paranormal; Alien Abduction / Interaction often springs to mind. A survey known as the Roper Poll claimed that nearly four million American’s had certain ‘indicator’ experiences and therefore had probably been abducted by Aliens. To begin, this could never have been a true figure. Only a handful of four million people were used as subjects of the experiment, and no one can really produce an over-all figure of four million without conducting huge surveys which of course would have taken years to complete.

The "Gray" is clearly the most common alien and over the years a typical account has emerged. The experience begins most often when the person is at home in bed and most often at night, though sometimes abductions occur from a car or outdoors. There is an intense blue or white light, a buzzing or humming sound, anxiety or fear, and the sense of an unexplained presence. A craft with flashing lights is seen and the person is transported into it. Once inside the craft, the person may be subjected to various medical procedures, often involving the removal of eggs or sperm, skin of hair samples, and the implantation of a small object in the nose or elsewhere. Communication with the aliens is usually by a form of telepathy. The abductee feels helpless and is often restrained, or partially or completely paralysed.

The "Gray"is said to be about four feet high, with a slender body and neck, a large. head, and huge, black, slanted, almond-shaped eyes. Grays usually have no hair and often only three fingers on each hand. Rarer aliens include green or blue types, the taller fair-haired Nordics, and human types who are sometimes seen working with the Grays. The aliens purpose in abducting Earthlings varies from warnings of impending ecological catastrophe to a vast alien breeding programs, necessitating the removal of eggs and sperm from humans in order to produce half-alien, half-human creatures. Some alleged abductees claim to have seen foetuses in special jars, and some claim they were made to play with or care for the half-human children. Occasionally, people claim to be snatched from public places, with witnesses, or even in groups. This provides the potential for independent corroboration, but physical evidence is extremely rare. A few examples of stained clothing have been brought back; and some of the implants have reportedly been removed from abductees' bodies, but they usually mysteriously disappear. In one such case, a witness went to see her local doctor about her nose bleeds and head-aches. He informed the witness that she had something up her nose but could not remove it. He referred her to the local hospital. At the time the case was being investigated by a UFO organisation and the investigators had informed the witness about alleged nose implants. the witness went to have an x-ray at the hospital, the small object up her nose had disappeared. The only thing she thought was unusual, was the really heavy nosebleed she got up with that morning... But are these experiences real... ?

Perhaps alien abduction is our modem sleep paralysis myth. We can point out the similarities between abductions and sleep paralysis. The majority of the abduction experiences studied occur at night, and almost 60 percent of the "intense" reports seem to be sleep related. Of the intense experiences, nearly a quarter involved symptoms similar to sleep paralysis. Cox in (1995) divided his twelve abductees, into six daytime and six night-time abductions and, even with such small groups, found that the night-time abductees reported significantly more frequent sleep paralysis than either of the control groups. May be the best explanation for many abduction experiences are that they are elaboration's of the experience of sleep paralysis. Imagine the following
scenario :-

A woman wakes in the night with a strong sense that someone or something is in the room. She tries to move but finds she is completely paralysed except for her eyes. She sees strange lights, hears a buzzing or humming sound, and feels a vibration in the bed. If she knows about sleep paralysis, she will recognise it instantly, but most people do not. So what is she going to think ? If she has watched TV programs about abductions or read about them, she may begin to think of aliens, and in this borderline sleep state, the imagined alien will seem extremely real. This alone may be enough to create the conviction of having been abducted. Hypnosis could make the memories of this real experience (but not real abduction) completely convincing.

Sleep disorders and deprivation can sometimes cause sleep paralysis. A typical example of this type of paralysis is when you fall asleep and wake to find your paralysed. In fact, the body is still asleep, yet you are mentally awake. The delay between mental awakeness and physical can be as long as 10 - 15 minutes, however most experiences are short lived. This can be brought on by over tiredness. This form is known as Sleep Deprivation Paralysis (SDP), and is commonly reported.

In cases of deprivation, paralysis can also be found. The human brain requires approximately 20 minutes of REM sleep pattern per night. We tend to go to bed for 8 hours or more in hope of achieving our 20 minute REM. If it is not reached then we may wake up knowing we have been asleep, but feel that we haven't. Those who do achieve 20 minutes or more REM usually wake up felling refreshed and ready for the day ahead. Everybody's REM cycles seem to be different. For a minority of people, forms of deprivation may be illness related such as Insomnia. This is when certain individuals have trouble sleeping, or do not sleep for long periods of time. There is no-one who does not sleep at all. Everybody needs to sleep. A sleep deprivation experiment in 1993 found that when the subject is kept awake for more than 72 hours they can start to hallucinate. This event is brought on by the deprivation. In fact, it seems that their dream related images may manifest as hallucinations, as a dream state creeps into the consciousness. Through this experiment, the subject became disorientated, could not function correctly, or calculate his environment or actions. Over a period of time paralysis can b induced, therefore causing the physical self to enter sleep but being mentally conscious. This may seem rather cruel, however, the student wanted to take part and the experiment was harmless. In fact, after a good long sleep, the subject volunteered to be part of the experiment again, if necessary.

We already know that Hypnosis is no truth drug, and eliciting the truth about a subconscious memory can somewhat be useless. As some hypnosis practice can sometimes produce more questions than answers. Always remember that the subject can easily lie under hypnosis, and differentiating the true information from the fantasy side of the subconscious can be next to impossible. MAPIT operate a ‘No Hypnosis Policy’. ‘We do not condemn the use of hypnosis only the mis-use of it’. John Mack, M.D. is a Harvard psychiatrist and a Pulitzer prize winning author who studies the Alien Abduction phenomena scientifically. John has a new book out, published by Crown entitled : Passport To The Cosmos - Transformative Lessons of Alien Encounters. If its anything like his previous book, it’s definitely worth getting hold of...